Peru Chiclayo Mission 9/2013-9/2015

Monday, January 26, 2015

On Monday we went over to some other Elders room and we all met over there and had a BBQ kind of thing and ate some hamburgers and played Ping Pong and kind of just hung out and it was actually really fun!!

On Tuesday we had a lesson with Blanca and in the beginning we started explaining that before her baptism that she was going to have to go through an interview and then she started to tell us that she didn't feel
ready and that she was going through some problems and she wanted to
push the date back a little bit.. She started to tell us a lot of things
that had happened to her and we felt that we needed to sit there and
listen to her and we ended up being in her house for a little over 2
hours but to make it shorter and then end after listening we bore
testimony and told her that she was ready to be baptized and then
invited here again and we waited there for like 30 seconds in silence
just letting her think and feel the spirit and at the end she said yes
and so we started to get everything ready for the baptism! On Tuesday we
also had interviews with the President and his wife and those were
awesome as usual!

On
Thursday was the baptismal interview for Blanca and she got there a
little bit late and the interview ended up taking like 2 hours too so we
were a little bit nervous that something had went wrong but she came
out and everything was alright! So we didn't really get to do much on
Thursday because the baptismal interview took up all afternoon and then
we went to a missionary farewell kind of deal for a missionary who i
leaving for the mission from our ward tomorrow! It was kind of like a
testimony meeting which was pretty cool!

Then
on Saturday was the big day!! We went to the church at ".30 to clean
and fill up the baptismal font and we ended up taking a long time to
drain the water that was already in it.. gross! clean it out and clean
the church up too and fill it back up but its okay because the Baptism
was at 4 but it never starts on time here in Peru so we got everything
done at about 4:15ish and then a couple people showed up but all in all
it was a pretty small thing! Blanca got there at like 4:45ish and some
other members got there at like 5ish and then we got dressed and we went
outside and took some pictures and then we started the baptismal
service! All went well and when it was time to do the ordinance i got
down into the water and right when she was going to get into the water
her little 5 year old kid started crying and screaming hysterically and
it was insane!! He would not let go of his mom!?! Don't really know
exactly what was the problem but he would not let go and they tried to
pull him outside to be able to do the ordinance but he would not let
go... They decided they were going to have him come into the font with
us for the baptism but he wouldn't come in and finally they just grab
him when the opportunity came and took him outside and we did the
baptism really fast and all went well! During that whole time that the
kid was crying i was standing in the baptismal font getting cold because
the water was cold! After the baptism she gave a powerful testimony and
it was really awesome!! It made me feel really good!

Well
this week went really well after all and it was really cool! I'm
grateful for the opportunity to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord
and help bring souls unto Christ! I know that there is a special
feeling in the Church of Jesus Christ and it will fill any empty space
there is! I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Love you all too!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Well this week went alright i guess but there were a couple minor
setbacks!

So this week my companion ended up getting sick on Thursday and we couldnt
really go out.. I guess my companion is still getting used to the food and to
the culture! It took me a while too so its whatever! Hes better now though which
is good!! So other than that it was a little rough this week because the members
who were going to come out visiting with us ended up bailing out on us... That
has happened quite a bit recently... I guess theres not much we can do
though...

So this week church was kind of cool! I ended up giving a talk again..
Three times in the last 3 months!? It went pretty well though! What was even
cooler is that we ended up having like almost 140 people in church which is a
lot more than we have had in a long time.. even since before i got here! Whats
even cooler than that is that one of the recent converts in our ward brought
her whole family to church!?!? It was so cool to see the whole family there!!
There were also a lot of the less actives that we are teaching too so it was
kind of cool to see all the people that had come to church.. all to hear my
talk... haha no just kidding!

So this week we have been talking with Blanca and everything has been going
well with her and if everything continues to go well she might get baptized
this Saturday which would be awesome!! I have seen a big chnage in Blanca and i
can tell that she feels the spirirt and she is just so awesome!!

This week we were able to teach a couple new families too which was really
cool! One of the recent converts in our ward invited us over to talk with his
family this week and the lesson went really well! They were all really receptive
and they said they really liked what we talked about!! They seem like a really
cool family and we should be able to help them out a lot!!

Well not much has happened this week other than that.. More to come next
week!! Love you all very much!! I know that through the grace of Christ we shall
be saved, or through the enabling power of Christs grace that we shall be saved
and have the power to do anything!!

Monday, January 12, 2015

So i guess things are started to get back to normal now that all the
parties and things are over because we were able to visit a lot more people this
week which was awesome!

We were able to visit some new people this week which was really cool! Its
kind of hard sometimes when the members dont give us references to go off of but
we have to do the best with what we have got! So yeah a couple of the people
that we contacted this week let us in and so we have started working with
them!!

One of the investigators that is progressing is Blanca S.!! She hadnt
come to church these past couple of weeks but she came to church yesterday which
was awesome!! She said in one of the later visits that we had with her that she
had felt that something was missing and that when she went to church she felt a
lot better and she think that she was missing something because she hadnt come
to church! So this week we have met with her 3 times and the first time we met
with her we talked for a little while and she started telling us that she knew
the church was true and how she knew the Book of Mormon is true and everything
so we decided to extend her a bapttismal date for the 17th of January and we
told her to pray about it and she said she would! So the next time we went to
her house she told us that she had prayed but that she was passing through some
difficulties and had some fears and that she didn feel prepared to get
baptized.. That was a bummer because we totally thought that she was going to
accept and it was going to be awesome! SO we just invited her to keep praying
about it and see what God wants her to do! When we got to dinner that night we
decided that we were going to fast for her! So on Saturday we started a fast for
her and on Sunday after the fast we had a lesson with her and it was a super
awesome lesson!!! We could definately see how fasting had helped and the
miracles and blessings that God had given us!! Blanca accpeted a baptismal date
for the 24th of January and we feel like she is prepared to do this and she
knows everything is true!! That had to be one of the better experiences of the
mission right there!! It definatley built my testimony of fasting and the power
of fasting!!

Other than that the drunk people still come up to us and they always have
to talk to the two gringos that are walking around and the people still yell out
things all the time at us!! You got to love Peru though!! Haha!! Well thats
about all that was interesting this week!! I know that God lives and that he
hears our pleas! I have witnessed it first hand many times!! Love you
all!!

Monday, January 5, 2015

So its been a little while since ive been able to talk to everyone! Hows
everyone been?? Ive been great during these Holiday seasons!

So the work has been going pretty slow and has been hard for us
right now because nobody has had time to visit with us! But thats alright
because it should start to pick up a little bit now!

So our Christmas went pretty well! The 24th we went home at 9 and a member
brought us some Pollo a la Brasa which was pretty good! Then we kind of just
waited for the night and at midnight we came downstairs and we ate another dinner
with the Pensions family! We had the usual Panneton
and the Hot Chocolate and it was yummy! Then we went to bed and the next day for
us was P-day and so we woke up a little bit later than normal (president said we
could! :) )and after breakfast we opened up the little gifts that we had. The best part though was skyping with the family
after 7 months!? It was really nice to see everyone and talk with
everyone!!

Then for New Years the schedule was about the same but this time we had to
come back to the room at 8 because sometimes it get really dangerous on New
Years because eveyone does crazy things and a bunch of people are drinking the
whole time!? So we came back and 8 and we ate dinner then and then we just
waited and cleaned up the room and did just whatever until it was like 11:45 PM
and then we climbed up on top of our roof and we had a pretty unobstructed view
of everything and all the fireworks!! By 11:45 there were a ton of fireworks
going off and they just became more and more until it was 12 and then at 12
everyone lit their Muñecos on fire and it was so loud and there were soooo many
fireworks and there was a ton of smoke too it got a little harder to breath!
That was my last New Years and Christmas here in Peru and im definatley going to
miss the New Years celebration here because its just so insane!!! It was all
really fun!!

Anyways so during these last couple of weeks we havent really had much
success in the work but were still trying to work with the people! We dont
really have very many investigators that are progressing and not very many
people in the ward are helping us so everyhting kind of just slowed down...
Blanca hasnt come to church for the past couple of weeks which has been a
bummer!! All of the people just kept telling us that they would come to church
and everything but then they never ended up coming so yeah it hasnt been the
greatest lately and it has made it really hard for us lately!! On top of that
there have been a lot of drunk people in the streets lately and since were both
gringos walking around they always like to come up to us and start talking to us
and its really annoying sometimes... One time this drunk guy came up to us and
started to talk to us for like 10 minutes and at the end he pulled us in to a
group hug and he said a prayer with us and it was really wierd and
uncomfortable!?!

Anyways so these past couple have weeks have gone pretty well and my
copmanion is doing alright! It always hard the beginning of the mission and hes
hanging in there still! Its hard for him so far because of the spanish barrier
but he´ll get the hang up of it little by little! He is really cool and is able to express his love and kindness freely and openly and hes a very sincere person too!

Anyways that about all for now!! Love all of you guys!! I know that God
gives us trials to make us stronger to develop us into the person he needs us to
be and the person that we will need to be to succeed in the future! In a way im
grateful for the trials that i have because they make me who i am!!

Love,

Elder Jarman

Caroling in the town center

Ran into my first area pensionista and she gave this cool little pillow.